Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an energy management system and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for configuring a screen provided for a client in an energy management system.
Description of the Related Art
Under circumstances of increased government regulation for improvement of energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas, increased burden on energy costs, insufficient supply of power, and so on, there is a rising interest in reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency. Although the reduction of energy consumption requires measures which are systematic, sustainable and effective, satisfactory means have not been suggested until now. Therefore, for the purpose of reduction of energy consumption, there is a need of powerful means for determining where and how much energy is consumed, discovering factors of energy dissipation, and finding and fulfilling improvement plans.
As such means, an energy management system (EMS) capable of monitoring and controlling a flow of energy is receiving the global spotlight. The energy management system is an integrated energy management solution capable of optimizing energy consumption by monitoring situations of energy consumption in real time and analyzing an aggregation of data based on hardware, software and ICT-based monitoring and control techniques.
In order to monitor the status of energy use in real time in an energy management system, it is necessary to display the status of operation of the energy management system. Hereinafter, a configuration and operation of a display apparatus in a typical energy management system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional display apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional display apparatus 40 includes a timer 46, a data updating unit 45, a drawing unit 41, an input receiving unit 44, a temporary storage unit 43 and a screen output unit 42. The displaying apparatus 40 may be incorporated in an energy management system.
The timer 46 informs the data updating unit 45 of a data update period. The display apparatus 40 updates data displayed on a screen for each predetermined period. The display apparatus 40 can offer varying data having its shorter update period to a user more quickly. However, in this case, since a period during which logic for a screen output is performed becomes shorter, a big load may be imposed on the system. Conversely, a longer update period can provide a longer period during which the logic for the screen output is performed, which may result in reduction of the system load. However, this has a problem that the display apparatus 40 cannot offer the varying data to the user immediately. In general, a screen update period may be set to 2 seconds. This period is not fixed but may be differently set depending on the size of data to be displayed.
The input receiving unit 44 receives an input from the user. The input received from the user may be one of click, screen contraction/extension and scroll operation. Data displayable on one screen are typically limitative, but the display apparatus 40 can receive the user input and display data which are not currently being output to the screen.
The data updating unit 45 updates the data displayed on the screen. In addition, the data updating unit 45 can reflect the updated data to change an object to be displayed on the screen. For example, the data updating unit 45 changes a graph to be output according to the data. The data updating unit 45 receives the update period from the timer 46 and can update the data for each received update period.
The drawing unit 41 calculates and updates a screen to be actually displayed. Specifically, the drawing unit 41 receives the updated data from the data updating unit 45 and receives the user input from the input receiving unit 44. Then, the drawing unit 41 calculates and updates the screen to be actually displayed, based on the received user input. For example, an input indicating only an amount of power may be received in the input receiving unit 44. In this case, the drawing unit 41 calculates only a screen for the amount of power and updates the screen based on the data received from the data updating unit 45.
The temporary storage unit 43 stores a screen provided to the screen output unit 42. Specifically, the display apparatus 40 cannot simultaneously perform an operation of drawing a screen and an operation of displaying the screen. Therefore, there may occur a flickering effect in which the screen cannot be displayed in a time interval during which the screen is drawn. The temporary storage unit 43 temporarily can store a next screen to be provided to the screen output unit 42 and provide the stored screen to the screen output unit 42 in order to minimize the above-mentioned flickering effect. The operation of the display apparatus 40 will be described in detail later.
The screen output unit 42 actually draws a screen output to an output unit 50. Specifically, the screen output unit 42 configures a screen which can be output to the output unit 50, based on the screen stored in the temporary storage unit 43.
The output unit 50 receives a screen from the display apparatus 40 and outputs the received screen. The output unit 50 may be incorporated in the display apparatus 40.
Hereinafter, the operation of the conventional display apparatus 40 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 shows one example of an operation of the conventional display apparatus 40.
As shown in FIG. 2, the drawing unit 41 calculates a screen to be displayed, updates the calculated screen, and delivers the updated screen to the screen output unit 42. The screen output unit 42 draws the delivered screen in the form which can be output to the output unit 50 and delivers the drawn screen to the output unit 50.
However, in this case, the operation of the drawing unit 41 to calculate and update the screen to be displayed and the operation of the screen output unit 42 to copy the updated screen cannot be simultaneously performed. Specifically, since the drawing unit 41 and the screen output unit 42 are incorporated in the single display apparatus 40, these units have to be operated according to a series of sequences. In other words, while the drawing unit 41 is being operated, the screen output unit 42 cannot deliver the updated screen from the drawing unit 41 to the output unit 50 in real time.
Accordingly, the screen updating operation in the drawing unit 41 and the updated screen copying operation in the screen output unit 42 are sequentially performed, thereby causing the screen flickering effect. If the number of data or objects to be displayed on the screen is small, the above-described operations may be performed so quickly as not to cause the screen flickering effect. However, since the number of data and objects to be displayed in the energy management system is very large, the screen flickering effect is unavoidable.
FIGS. 3 and 4 show examples of an operation of the conventional display apparatus 40 to solve the flickering effect of FIG. 2. The operation of the display apparatus 40 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be referred to as a double buffering technique.
In the examples of FIGS. 3 and 4, the display apparatus 40 further includes a temporary storage unit 43. The temporary storage unit 43 stores in advance a screen next to the screen being currently output from the screen output unit 42. Accordingly, the drawing unit 41 can store in advance the screen next to the screen being currently output to the temporary storage unit 43 and the screen output unit 42 can copy the stored screen from the temporary storage unit 43 and provide a user with the copied screen with no flickering effect.
In the example of FIG. 3, the drawing unit 41 stores the entire screen, which is to be updated, in the temporary storage unit 43 and the screen output unit 42 copies only some screen 47 to be output, based on an input from the input receiving unit 44.
In addition, in the example of FIG. 4, the drawing unit 41 calculates and updates only some screen 47 to be output, based on an input from the input receiving unit 44. The updated some screen 47 is stored in the temporary storage unit 43. Then, the screen output unit 42 copies the some screen 47 stored in the temporary storage unit 43. As compared to the example of FIG. 3, in the example of FIG. 4, the size of a screen to be updated in the drawing unit 41 is small, thereby allowing a system load to be further reduced.
However, the above double buffering technique has a limitation in that the screen updating operation is performed in a single configuration. Specifically, the display apparatus 40 has a limitation in that a screen is first updated and the updated screen is then output.